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Archive for July, 2013
Environmental damage costing India nearly six per cent of GDP
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on July 18th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Environmental degradation is seriously restricting India's economic growth, costing it around Rs. 3.75tr ($80bn) or 5.7 per cent of GDP each year.
That is the stark conclusion of a major new report from the World Bank, entitled Diagnostic Assessment of Select Environmental Challenges in India and hailed as the first major report to look at the economic impact of environmental damage in one of the world's largest emerging economies.
The report concludes that a host of well-documented environmental...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Environmental damage costing India nearly six per cent of GDPMinn. Commission Approves Enbridge Oil Pipeline Expansion Despite Protest
Posted by Duluth News Tribune: Don Davis on July 18th, 2013
Duluth News Tribune: A Minnesota state commission provided a key approval Wednesday to a northern Minnesota oil pipeline expansion as chants of “shame on you” rang out in the downtown St. Paul meeting room.
“We are the people you represent,” one of more than 100 protesters shouted as all five Public Utilities Commission members approved increasing the pipeline’s capacity after a brief discussion of the pipeline issue with no chance for public testimony.
Pipeline opponents, mostly environmentalists and American...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Minn. Commission Approves Enbridge Oil Pipeline Expansion Despite ProtestCalifornia Officials Wrestle with Handling Trade Secrets on Fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2013
LA Times: State officials have been flooded with more than 20,000 comments and suggestions regarding proposed regulations of a controversial oil and gas drilling technique known as fracking, officials said Wednesday.
Members of the California Water Commission voiced concerns of their own Wednesday about whether the state should treat the recipes for some fracking liquids as trade secrets, not to be disclosed to the public.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves the injection of water, sand and chemicals...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California Officials Wrestle with Handling Trade Secrets on FrackingMaking Cities More Resilient in the Face of Climate Change
Posted by Triple Pundit: Eric Justian on July 18th, 2013
Triple Pundit: Cities around the world, aided by long-sighted business leaders, are working to "future proof" themselves against disaster. Recently, the 4th annual Global Forum on Urban Resilience and Adaptation took place in Bonn, Germany where leaders from every corner of the earth came to learn how to prepare for the effects of climate change. he United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) issued an informational handbook to help mayors through the process of making a more resilient city, better...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Making Cities More Resilient in the Face of Climate ChangeAustralia pledges more cash to battle reef starfish
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: Australia pledged another Aus$5 million (US$4.6 million) to the fight against a predatory starfish devastating the iconic Great Barrier Reef Thursday, revealing 100,000 of the creatures had been wiped out so far.
Environment Minister Mark Butler said the new funding, on top of Aus$2.53 million already pledged, would support a programme of culling the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, which is naturally-occurring but has proliferated due to pollution and run-off.
A major study of the reef's...
States Turn Blind Eye as Fracking Industry Routinely Violates Laws
Posted by EcoWatch: Amy Mall on July 17th, 2013
EcoWatch: A scathing new investigation from EnergyWire confirms the worst fears of citizens across the country who live near fracking sites: state regulators are not doing everything they can to prevent oil and gas companies from repeatedly violating the law. EnergyWire spent months analyzing state records.
Reported spills from oil and gas well sites, according to publicly available state and federal data. Map courtesy of EnergyWire/Andrew Holmes.
While the extensive investigation uncovers numerous violations,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on States Turn Blind Eye as Fracking Industry Routinely Violates LawsDam! Beavers have been busy sequestering carbon
Posted by New Scientist: Laurence Pope on July 17th, 2013
New Scientist: Beavers aren't going to save the world - but they are doing their bit for carbon capture and storage. The dams they build, and the wetlands produced as a result, lock away a surprising amount of carbon.
"Beavers offer a mechanism of carbon storage," says Ellen Wohl of Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Beaver dams cause water to breach riverbanks, creating areas of wetland known as beaver meadows, which contain large amounts of sediment and organic material. If the dam breaks the meadows...
Dust bowl blues
Posted by Nation: Sasha Abramsky on July 17th, 2013
Nation: Ed Moore's ranch sits on the flatlands of the Texas panhandle, east of Lubbock, just outside the tiny town of Ralls. On a clear day, you can see for miles in any direction. Most days, however, the dust blows--and when it does, the sky becomes a dull orange haze and the scene becomes impressionistic. The high gray towers of grain elevators dot the landscape. Cattle graze in silhouette. Farmers ride through the gloom on tractors with vast "sand fighters' that gather the earth into big clods so the...
Keystone XL will hike gasoline prices, report says
Posted by Fuel Fix: Jennifer A. Dlouhy on July 17th, 2013
Fuel Fix: California billionaire Tom Steyer and other Keystone XL opponents pulled out another weapon in their fight against the pipeline on Tuesday, arguing that the project would cause gasoline prices to climb up to 40 cents per gallon in the Midwest.
According to a new report by Consumer Watchdog, Keystone XL would give Canadian oil a new avenue to competitors on the Gulf Coast and access to a global market, bypassing Midwest refiners who now rely on that discounted oil for more than half of their raw...
Reid blames climate change: ‘West is burning’
Posted by Las Vegas Review-Journal: Steve Tetreault on July 17th, 2013
Las Vegas Review-Journal: As firefighters head home from Southern Nevada, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Wednesday blamed “climate change” for the intense blaze that consumed nearly 28,000 acres and drove hundreds of residents from their homes around Mount Charleston this month.
Reid said the government should be spending “a lot more” on fire prevention, echoing elected officials who say the Forest Service should move more aggressively to remove brush and undergrowth that turn small fires into huge ones.
“The West is burning,”...